Sooner or later, almost every celebrity has to deal with a false, exaggerated or scandalous story in the tabloids. Patricia Heaton had hers a few months ago. She gets agitated talking about it.

The story - brace yourself - said that some CBS executive told the Emmy-winning co-star of "Everybody Loves Raymond" that she could not appear as a celebrity contestant on ABC's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

That's it?

That's it. It tells you something about the Cleveland-bred Heaton that it's the closest she has come to scurrilous publicity, and that she is mostly upset because the story was inaccurate.

"Can I set the record straight?" she asked in recent interview in Los Angeles. "Nobody told me I couldn't be on 'Millionaire.' Whoever came up with that, it's totally false. I got a call from my publicist saying I'd been invited to do 'Millionaire.' I called him back said no because I don't generally do game shows because I don't want to turn into a celebrity 'thing.' I'm an actor. I'm not a celebrity thing. I did 'Hollywood Squares' because they invited the whole cast and I didn't want to be the party pooper who said no.

Uncomfortable for her

"This is not to criticize people who do game shows," she added. "It feels uncomfortable for me. Some people are personalities, and that's what they sell. But I'm an actor. That's what I do."

Heaton might not consider herself a Personality, but - unlike some actors who would - she actually has one. It has made her a sought-after interview subject and a favorite guest of hosts like David Letterman and Rosie O'Donnell, who like her funny and unpretentious directness.

It shines on CBS' "Everybody Loves Raymond" in her portrayal of Debra Barone, a comic tour de force that might have been tailor-made for the married mother of four sons. On a series renowned for the true-ringing authenticity of its writing and situations, Heaton is the awesome Everywoman who does it all - setting up and reacting to the rest of the talented cast, nailing her own share of gags and displaying the rare ability to perform physical comedy in a way that's realistic and not slapstick. She can play it straight or play for comedy and make every second believable.

Series creator Phil Rosenthal calls her "our Mary Tyler Moore," and remembers as a revelation the discovery she could "cry funny."

Last year's Emmy nomination, for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series, was her second. Some observers considered her a dark horse to win, "but those are people who haven't watched our show," she said. They're also people who didn't take into account a new Emmy voting system that finally took ballots away from calcified panels and gave them to nominees' actual peers, who do watch the shows.

Problem with gown

Heaton made the Emmy ceremonies in a slinky, patterned Dolce & Gabbana gown. "It took a team of experts about six hours to put me together," she joked, though her big concern was the gold cross around her neck. "I was worried it would be sacrilegious to wear it, because it looked good and it's hanging above this big honkin' cleavage," she said. "So I called up one of my sisters and she assured me it would be fine.

"I remember every second," she said. "It's the best. Every person should get up on a stage and have Cher hand them an award. You can't describe the feeling."

She declines to confirm that her acceptance - "I want to thank God for thinking me up, and my mother for letting me come out" - was intended as an anti-abortion statement. She is honorary chairwoman of the Washington-based Feminists for Life, where she has been called "the most courageous woman in Hollywood" for advancing her views.

"My main thing with that was that I am extremely grateful for God and the universe and my family to have this stuff happen," she said. "Look at this position I'm in! I just wanted to get across I feel like the luckiest person in the world, and I'm very grateful for where I am and [to] everybody who helped me get here. There are a million I wanted to thank, including my acting coach in New York and people who gave me temp jobs. That summed it up."

Staged plays early

Second youngest in a family of five children - Plain Dealer columnist Michael Heaton is her older brother - Heaton staged plays for other kids in the neighborhood while growing up in Bay Village. Her mother, Pat, died of an aneurysm when Patty was 12, an event she "just kind of shut out" as too much to bear. After attending St. Augustine Academy and Bay High, she studied journalism at Ohio State University, partly at the inspiration of her father, Chuck, retired after more than 50 years as a sportswriter and columnist for The Plain Dealer.

But her acting inclinations were strong. She switched her major to theater arts, and moved to New York City after graduating in 1980. Her eight years in the city were "tough," she said. "You really know that you're supposed to be in this industry if you keep trying to leave it and you can't. I considered it, and tried." She had jobs managing restaurants, modeling shoes, proofreading for investment bankers, working industrial shows and running the copying machine at People magazine.

"I'd have to make 12 copies of a story, and they'd always be about other actresses, and I'd have to watch them go around and around on the Xerox machine," she said. "It was a really humbling experience."

The apartment

But she also sublet an apartment from David Hunt, an English actor and director who was away performing Shakespeare in Baltimore. The relationship blossomed into romance, and the couple were married in 1989. They have four sons, ages 7, 5, 3 and 2.

She also made her Broadway debut in the gospel musical "Don't Get God Started," and joined other acting students forming the off-Broadway troupe Stage Three. They took one production to Los Angeles, where running a copier proved more serendipitous than it was at People.

"I met a guy in a copy shop who saw me copying scripts," she said. "We got to talking. He knew the casting director for 'thirtysomething.' He told me to call them and send my resume. I did. They cast me in a part, then cut the part."

But the casting director called back, giving her what became her big break - seven episodes as a doctor on "thirtysomething," when Patricia Wettig's Nancy was diagnosed with cancer.

"That is totally God opening doors," she said. "I didn't have an agent or anything when I got that. It took me so long - I had to do like four episodes of 'thirtysomething' before an agent would take me."

Big screen roles

Other roles followed. She was featured in two big-screen comedies, "Beethoven" and "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" - "New Age" and "Space Jam" would follow - and co-starred as Linda Lavin's daughter on the ABC series "Room for Two."

She played the divorced mother of a teenage daughter on NBC's "Someone Like Me," an early comedy from "Drew Carey Show" producer Bruce Helford, and then an aide to Delta Burke's congresswoman on CBS' short-lived "Women of the House."

"Raymond" came the following year, in 1996, following a pattern of success that drew comparisons to "Seinfeld." Critically acclaimed but low rated on Friday night in its first season, it steadily grew in audience after moving to Monday and now ranks among prime-time's top shows. By last month, in fact, its record ratings showed it eclipsing "Friends" and "Frasier" as TV's most-watched sitcom - partly because it tends to score high ratings even in reruns.

Like Heaton's Emmy, the show's success has opened more doors - "but the thing about doing a sitcom is, my time is all taken up."

She'd like to do more films, for big screen or TV, but her only CBS movie was "A Miracle in the Woods" with Della Reese and Meredith Baxter three years ago.

"I had just given birth five weeks earlier," she said. "I was huge, 25 pounds overweight. I watched it later and said, that's exactly what I looked like in high school."

Contemplating a book

Now she's contemplating starting a book of humorous essays, "a Dennis Miller meets Erma Bombeck sort of book about motherhood and Hollywood."

And, with her husband, she has just launched Four Boys Films, a production company that already has optioned several novels and screenplays - "not for us to act in, just as producers. I'm interested in moving in that direction because I'm turning into an old bag and nobody will want to see me on the TV anymore. So I'm hedging my bets for the future.

"We were thinking of having another baby," she added with a chuckle, "but since it costs too much to do the Four Boys graphics over, we're done."